Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is good but I'd love to see their interest expense. I read somewhere that the Station Casinos shovelled a bunch of debt into Zuffa. I wonder if that's true?

All the fighters are gonna leave for Bellator to make an extra 10K on sponsors.

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Yes, because fighters are getting a cut of this gargantuan profit.

Not that they would need any bonuses of that sort. Theyre making great money. 10k per fight from which they should deduce taxes & expenses ... and a whopping 2500$ from reebok, plus shoes and sneakers.

Bellator's free for all sponsorship system could in no way compete with that. I dont see top 10's moving to Bellator because of that, or using it as a bargaining chip to increase their already immense UFC salary.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is good but I'd love to see their interest expense. I read somewhere that the Station Casinos shovelled a bunch of debt into Zuffa. I wonder if that's true?

Not that they would need any bonuses of that sort. Theyre making great money. 10k per fight from which they should deduce taxes & expenses ... and a whopping 2500$ from reebok, plus shoes and sneakers.

Bellator's free for all sponsorship system could in no way compete with that. I dont see top 10's moving to Bellator because of that, or using it as a bargaining chip to increase their already immense UFC salary.

UFC had 40+ events last year, but only 10 of them made all the money. The bulk of that was RRR and CMG.

They have 400 fighters and a HW champ that speaks 3 languages!!!!! How come they cannot make Werdum into the biggest star? Remember, RRR her own following before the Zuffa buyout when Dana didnt want to see women fight. Conor made a documentary for himself during his injury. After the StrikeForce buyout, UFC has been lazy on making stars.

And no, its not the fighters problem, Zuffa is a large company that has $$$ to burn on the Dana and Matt Serra TV show.

MMA is always gonna be structured around the spectacles. It can't have a regular schedule like normal sports because "games" can't be played regularly for health reasons. And the biggest spectacles are the ones containing the biggest stars. Because of that, the UFC is only as big as its biggest stars at the time. Basically, 2014 had no stars and 2015 had Conor and Ronda.

In 2014, both Silva and GSP were absent. Jones only fought once. Conor and Ronda were only rising as stars and not yet PPV draws. There were also injury problems and a record high amount of shows, spreading the cards thin. On top of that, there was neither a new year show at the start or end of the year, as UFC 168 fell in 2013 and UFC 182 fell in 2015.

In 2015, Ronda Rousey became the biggest mainstream star in UFC history, and a PPV draw, bringing in nearly 3 million in PPV buys, and setting a new attendance record. Conor McGregor became the biggest star in certain ways, bringing in huge PPV numbers himself as well as record-setting gate numbers. UFC 189, UFC 193, and UFC 194 are among the most historically significant shows ever, and they all happened in 2015. Jones/DC and Anderson Silva's return against Diaz also brought the PPV numbers. 2015 could be a tough year to top, but we'll see if the UFC can do it this year with UFC 200, multiple Conor fights, potentially multiple Jones and Silva fights, Rousey/Holm II, and maybe the return of GSP.